Part 5 (1/2)

IX

PARENZO

The next town along the coast, Parenzo, is celebrated for its fine sixth-century cathedral, the pride of the whole of Istria ”the land of basilicas,” and is the headquarters of the Istrian Archaeological Society, several of whose members have devoted much time and money to the elucidation of the history, construction, and decoration of the building.

The excavations undertaken by the late Monsignore P. Deperis, Parroco Decano, showed that there have been four main epochs of construction, as well as restorations and embellishments: (1) Roman, or Early Christian, (2) Byzantine, (3) Gothic, and (4) Modern. There was a primitive Christian basilica to the north of the present one; and Euphrasius, in the sixth century, built his church upon the foundations of a second, which had succeeded it. The site of the first was used as a cemetery till the end of the eighteenth century, and was then made into the garden of the bishop's palace. It was oblong in shape, like the most ancient Christian churches, and had no apse, being 75 ft. 6 in. long and 55 ft. 9 in. wide. It had one main door of entrance, and the altar was at the eastern end of the northern portion. The pavement is 5 ft. 9 in.

below the level of the basilica of Euphrasius. In the south wall of the portion first discovered (one half of the total area) a door, the cill of which is still preserved, led to an oratory. On the mosaic pavement is this inscription in black letters on a white ground:

[Lu]PICINVS [et Pa]SCASIA [c.u.m r]EVERENTIA PA[mula]

FE[cerunt pedes] C[entum].

The remains of this pavement are good in design and execution, and the colours are well distributed. The nave was surrounded by a broad white band, within which was another still broader, sown with starred crosses.

The panels with subjects were also surrounded by a similar band. In the first panel from the door is a crown formed of a triple row of leaves within a double circle; the outer one has an octagon formed of meanders, and the inner a circular treatment of the same kind. Outside are lilies and other flowers within geometrical forms, and the whole is bordered with interlaced lines. In the small circle is a portion of an inscription, the right part of which has been destroyed by a tomb:

INFAN[tius]

ET INNOC[entia]

EX SVO P[alatio]

BASI[licam et]

TES[sellati]

P[edes].

The middle panel is square; within it is a handled _crater_ with a high foot. Two branches spring from it, which are bursting into flowers and leaves; they fill the whole s.p.a.ce with their convolutions. At the top is an inscription:

[Lu]PICINVS ET PASCASIA P[edes] CCCC F[ecerunt]; and at the bottom another:

CLAMOSVS MAG PVER ET SVCCESSA P[edes] C[entum]

FELICISSIMVS CVM SVIS P[edes] C[entum].

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF THE THREE BASILICAS, PARENZO]

This inscription is interesting as showing that there was a school attached to the basilica before the fourth century. The third panel surrounded the altar, the rectangle of which is marked by the sunken places in the marble slab where the columns stood. A piece of marble of the same size as the sinkings was found not far away. At the right is a square of about 3 ft. 3 in., with a framing of white bands and triangles of colour 10 in. broad, reducing the internal square to 19 in. In the centre is a portion of a cross based on the swastika, and a fish. On the left a cross, formed by the intersection of two oval rings, appears above the fish. These symbolic crosses point to a very early date. The doorstep of the oratory shows signs of considerable wear, and the mosaic has been roughly repaired near the word PICINVS. The fishes are apparently insertions, later in date than the original mosaic (which has the structural characteristics of the second century). This suggests that the first basilica may have been a portion of the house of a Christian of position, of which examples occur in Rome. It was probably burnt when Diocletian ordered the destruction of all Christian churches in 303 A.D., since charcoal was found amongst the masonry. The pavement, much broken up by tombs and by the old cistern constructed in the garden, extended under the north aisle of the present building; and the site of the altar is shown by lifting a trap-door in the chapel in the north arm of the cross, for the present basilica was made cruciform in plan in 1846-1847, by the erection of two chapels. The mosaics found in the garden have been completely excavated; they are covered over with glazed outhouses, and can be easily seen. Later excavations made in 1900 have proved that this first basilica had two equal naves, and remains of a marble chancel recalled the phrase in the S. Maurus inscription found beneath the high-altar in 1846: ”ideo in honorem duplicatus est locus.”

The second basilica was probably Constantinian. The present one coincides with it, except that the apse is polygonal and projects towards the east, and that the lines of the walls bend a little to the left from a line drawn across between the modern chapels. The floor of this basilica is about 2 ft. 9 in. below that of the present one. The mosaic pavement is well preserved nearly all over the surface; and the sacristan opens numerous trap-doors, and puts down tapers, to show the most interesting portions. The cills of two of the doors still remain 9 in. higher and much worn by traffic; the third was destroyed to place a sarcophagus against the wall of the church. Between the two pavement levels several unfinished caps and columns of limestone were found, and also two pedestals and one base among the foundations of the present nave arcade.

Beneath the presbytery is a choir and presbytery of the form used in the most ancient Constantinian basilicas. A sloping platform led up to the step upon which the bishop's seat stood at the centre of the semicircle, flanked by seats on each side for presbyters, the places being marked by red lines painted upon the fine plaster which covers the low wall, rising about 8 in. above the floor, itself 2 ft. 3 in. above the level of that of the nave. The diameter of the semicircle is about 18 ft., and it is floored with mosaic. Outside runs a white band 6 in. wide, within which is a band of ornament with two black lines at each side; one of them dentilled. This feature is 20 in. wide, with a waving stem with volutes and leaves of ivy occupying the central 12 in., black and grey on white. In the centre of all are other black leaves and scrolls in red, damaged by a mediaeval tomb. Three steps led down to the choir, for the singers, sub-deacons, and deacons. It has a plaster floor of a porphyry purple colour, and reaches as far as the third column of the present nave, counting from the east. It was afterwards extended on a lower level, reached by steps on each side, one of which is still in place. The mosaic pavement of this lower nave continues as far as a line which cuts across the central apse, appearing outside the ends of the aisles, as well as outside the semicircle of the presbytery just described, as at S. Maria, Grado. The presbytery wall is rough masonry, as if it had been external, and there are no signs of its having been decorated in any way; but the oblong plan with the apse some way within is found also at Salona, and in Syria and North Africa. Traces of a wall parallel to that of the north aisle, and beyond it, suggest the existence of rooms to the north.

An excavation in front of the door of the sacristy discovered a square mosaic on this level with inscription--

THEOFRASTVS [et]

IANVARIVS DIAC FEC P CCC

--which commenced beneath the chord of the existing apse and terminated in a line with the end of the wall of the earlier presbytery. West of it, and separated by a smooth and even division, as if a wall or screen had been there, mosaics previously discovered stretched to the west door. On the south side a similar division of the mosaic was found, a bit of a colonnette and a few fragments as of a bal.u.s.trade or _cancellum_. The s.p.a.ces thus marked off were probably _prothesis_ and _diaconicon_, the latter being to the left, where the two deacons gave the pavement. In the left aisle were five different designs given by as many donors. The right aisle was simpler. In the nave an inscription was found mentioning the Clamosus who was named on the earlier pavement, but in conjunction with Victorina, either his daughter or a second wife.

This proves that no great time intervened between the erection of the second and the regular use of the first basilica. The inscription found beneath the high-altar, already referred to, mentions two churches, and states that the first was repaired by the prayers of S. Maurus, and that his body was transferred to that place; and calls him bishop and confessor. Till 1354 his relics remained there, when the Genoese admiral, Pagano Doria, took them to Genoa as booty when he had sacked the city, placing them in the abbey church belonging to his family. The Marquis Doria soon returned them. In mediaeval doc.u.ments the district of the city of Parenzo is called ”territorio, terra di S. Mauro.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARBLE CAPITAL OF THE SIXTH CENTURY, PARENZO

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